TEHRAN – The European Union’s foreign policy chief has said he is upbeat about the talks in Vienna over reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. 

In an interview with the Austrian Kronen Zeitung newspaper, Josep Borrell said he received the U.S. response to an Iranian response and is optimistic about the state of the talks.

“I got the response from the U.S. It is now up to Iran to respond to them,” he said, thanking Austria for its role in the talks. 

Austria has played host to the talks since April 2021. More than eight rounds of talks were held in Vienna, Austria’s capital. 

“We have arrived at the crucial moment. I'm optimistic, it's the last millimeters,” Borrell said. 

It’s the second time the EU express optimism about the Vienna talks. Earlier this month, Peter Stano, the spokesman for the European Union expressed optimism about reaching an agreement in the Vienna talks while saying that it hinges on the participants' decisions.

The EU submitted its “final” proposal on the Vienna talks to Iran more than two weeks ago. Iran responded to the proposal after a week. The Iranian response was immediately relayed to the U.S. and the U.S. submitted its response on Wednesday. 

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the country on Wednesday afternoon received the US’s response to Tehran’s proposals aimed at resolving remaining issues during the sanctions removal talks from the EU’s coordinator of the Vienna negotiations.

Kanaani added that the Islamic Republic of Iran has started carefully reviewing the US side’s response. The Foreign Ministry spokesman also said the Islamic Republic of Iran will give its response to the EU coordinator after fully studying Washington’s response.

The European Union’s coordinator for the Vienna talks over reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal has said that most countries involved in the talks agree with the proposal submitted by the EU.

"Most of them agree, but I still don't have the answer from the United States, which I expect during this week," Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, said in an interview with Spain's national broadcaster TVE on Tuesday, Press TV reported.

Borrell has described the Iranian response as “reasonable.”

“There was a proposal from me as coordinator of the negotiations saying 'this is the equilibrium we reached, I don't think we can improve it on one side or the other'... and there was a response from Iran that I considered reasonable,” Borrell said, according to Reuters.